More than Half In the Bag

Margot got pretty caught up in doing the laundry the other day...

But, at least she seemed to have fun with it...

6 Months!

Well folks, we've made it to six months. Margot has become so much fun and has entirely taken our hearts. I'd swear that she was the greatest person ever born, but I've been around the block to know that every parent feels that. What a wonderful treat the biology of parenthood is! If you don't have kids, it's hard to understand. Try imagining the gloriousness of the first time you fell in love and then multiply it a million fold. That gets close to how indescribably incredible it is when I look at Margot. And this sort of magic happens every day around the world between parents and children. Who knew! This "having children" thing is pretty darn great. I'd say that I'm for it.

Anyhow, enough gushing. You're probably wondering what has been happening in the A-S household. Well, month number five brought a lot of new adventures. The biggest and most exciting of which is FOOD! Yes, Margot has entered the realm of those-who-eat-from-a-bowl. The eating sequence is hysterical. It starts with an excitedly open mouth like so:












Next comes the negotiation of the spoon:












Then the food is contemplated. I especially like this stage because the mood switches from an eager "I want to eat that!" look to a "why is there something in my mouth?!?" look.












Another excitement was M's first train trip (as documented on mom's cell phone). We took the Acela down to New York for a business meeting. The little bean was a model traveler once she was taught not to eat the ticket. Getting on the train, some guys said "I don't want to sit near the baby" and I found myself being offended. Then I'm thinking, "wait, I've been on enough of these trains to know that you business guys talk on your phone loudly the whole time. Margot makes a lot less noise than that!" And, I was right. She barely peeped until 20 minutes outside of Manhattan when she became all chatty. So, 4 hours on the train and no crying. I call that a real accomplishment. Maybe we'll try a big plane ride next!

Apart from that, Margot has been sitting up somewhat unaided. She's not the most stable baby, but she's doing well given that my technique for getting work done has been to hold her rather than do things like tummy time. If Margot never sits up on her own, you can blame my company. I'm sure she'll understand the sacrifice.

Separation anxiety has hit. People who aren't mom are now highly suspect. They might take her away and THAT WOULD BE BAD. This is actually a fascinating stage to watch. She can now anticipate things and will grab tighter on to me when someone comes to take her out of my arms or I move to put her down. I'd say that she:
1. knows what is coming (not being attached to mom)
2. has an idea of what to do about it (hold on tighter)
Developmentally, those seem like big steps to make. I'm not saying she's unusual in anyway, just that it's interesting to see her develop. Part of me thinks that this parenting thing is an incredible experiment in observing biological development. It's amazing to watch.

Our Own Brand of Dog Whispering

Any of you who have watched Cesar Milan, The Dog Whisperer, know that he practices Dog Psychology. In our life with Jolly, we have been forced to develop to Dog Reverse Psychology.

Jolly is scared of our stairs. They are unusually steep and pretty slippery for his little paws. The wreckless abandon with which he flings himself at them has led to some glorious wipeouts. Now, I wouldn't care if he never came upstairs again, but he whines at bed time when he is separated from the pack. Again, I wouldn't even let this bother me (I'm cold-hearted like that), but he stands in the hallway that connects to our neighbor's unit and the sound reverberates and is amplified by the space. In order to have our wonderful neighbor not hate us, we try to coax him up the stairs ever night. In a fit of extreme frustration the other night, I stopped trying to get him up the stairs and instead created the "get in the living room" command. In dog language, this must translate as "go climb up those stairs that you're more than happy to climb when you think we're leaving you alone in the house for the day" because he raced right upstairs.

I was able to use this command again last night to great effect. Now I just need to figure out the opposite of everything else I want him to do and he'll be a perfect dog!

5 Months Old!

For those of you keeping track, Margot has entered the 5th month of her life with us. Since we haven't written much lately, I thought you might want to hear about her accomplishments so far.

1. Two teeth!
About a month ago, the two front bottom teeth came in. This resulted in lots of drool, mild crankiness and one day of a fever. With the help of Infant Tylenol, we got through the worst of it. I, for one, had no idea how sharp those little tiny teeth could be. Nursing was tough, but we've gotten past any pain and are back to normal.

2. Daddy is funny.
Margot now laughs when you do something funny (like kiss her) or if you're laughing. The laugh started as little gasps and has developed into something more recognizable. And what, you ask, is the best way to get her to laugh? Daddy's kisses.

3. Sitting up is all the rage.
Who wants to lean back when you can sit up. Margot strains to sit up straight if you lean her back. She'll even grumble if you lean her back. This has made the bouncy chair less fun. She doesn't quite have the muscles to pull herself up, so she slumps over like you see here. That said, she was much happier when she got into this position.

Lots more happened, but we're going to post this message now rather than wait to finish it. If you're REALLY good and send me LOTS OF CHOCOLATE, I'll post more.

An original Andersen design

I had a vision for this hat and was very excited to find the time to figure it out and knit it. It was exciting to do something creative and I am very happy that it turned out the way I had imagined.

Super extra bonus, complete strangers went out of their way to compliment the hat!

Here Margot shows off her stylish new look.

umm, hello?

ring ring
me: hello
some guy: is this the radio shack in porter square?
me: no, sorry, you have the wrong number
some guy: (in an entitled voice like it's my fault he got the wrong number) oh, can you tell me what the right number is?
me: um, no


In what world is it the job of the recipient of a wrong number call to play phone book?

Maybe I wouldn't be so peeved if I hadn't gotten three calls from the same wrong number on my drive in to work this morning.

Sigh.

No autographs, please

In the category of tooting my own horn, I am proud to say that our work at Zyrra has been recognized by the Boston Globe Magazine as one of the Best of the New for 2008 (see more here).

Since that wasn't excitement enough, this lead to my television debut on Chronicle (a totally awesome local news show). I believe that I managed to come off as articulate and not bra-obsessed. I call that a huge accomplishment!

Apart from great press for our business, the real upside for me personally is that I:

1. learned that I can get my hair blow dried to look awesome for only $25 (by Bea at Margo's Hair and Body Design*)
2. found THE way to shop for awesome clothes - I asked the women at Ann Taylor to choose things that would work for me since I still try picking out things for the way my body was shaped in high school. They know the clothes in their store AND they don't have any of my body issues about how I look. They found great options for me and I came away with three things that I adore, plus my ego was less scarred than usual because I didn't try on a million things that were entirely wrong for my body. Bonus!

I wish that I had a photo so that you could see how I looked. It was a testament to working with your body and hair rather than fighting them (or ignoring them as I frequently do).

* I love this name. No clue what they mean by "Body Design", but it sounds exciting. I imagine something like "you would look better a little taller, let's fix that".

Perfection is ...

Sitting at home on a snowy day with Margot asleep in my arms and then she lets out a laugh. I wish I knew what she was dreaming about.

What's Worse Than Having a Cold?

Making your baby cry by blowing your nose.

Because taking care of a four-month old while sick wasn't hard enough.

Four Month Checkup

The four month checkup was yesterday. Margot is still the most perfect baby our doctor has ever seen (we're reading between the lines there, but that's only because she can't come out and say it).

Vital stats are:
weight: 14lbs 14.5 oz
length: 24.5 inches

Now she has a little bit of a fever from the shots, but she's holding up really well.